On April 3, 2007, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services ("USCIS") announced that, due to extreme demand, the H-1B cap for Fiscal Year 2008 was reached. Annually, 65,000 new H-1B visas are made available, with an additional 20,000 H-1B visas made available to holders of U.S. master's degrees or higher.

Per regulation, USCIS will conduct a randomized selection process to determine which petitions will be accorded an H-1B visa number among those received on April 2 and April 3, 2007. USCIS estimates that it received approximately 150,000 cap-subject H-1B petitions on April 2, the first day filings opened for FY2008.

As a result of this unprecedented demand for H-1B visa numbers, a significant number of H-1B petitions that were filed on the first and second days of availability will be rejected after the random selection process is completed. USCIS has stated that it will require several weeks to perform the random selection process.

To read the full text of the USCIS announcement, please click on the link below.

http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/H1BFY08Cap040307.pdf

For Further Information

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